Nom de Plume

So quoth Steve, upon hearing me chirping to the eggs again. I did. I stopped. Because I didn’t hear anything in return. Am terrified I’ve killed them.

I’m on day 20 and waiting for chicks to hatch is pure torture. I won’t tell you how much time I’ve spendt staring through the little plastic windows of the hovabator willing the eggs to pip. I could swear that I’ve seen a couple of eggs move a little, but then they stop and I attribute it to too much caffeine (which, incidentally, I’m back on. I missed it too much.)

I had read that if you chirp at the eggs, the little chicks will chirp back if they’ve pippped internally. So there I was chirping away at them through the vent hole of the incubator when Steve staggered into the kitchen to get coffee. “WHAT are you doing?”

“I’m chirping at the eggs,” I said.

“Oh my God.”

Which pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it?

Today is day 18, which means I took them out of the egg turner, increased the humidity, and am anxiously awaiting the end of this home stretch.

And I had to candle ONE LAST TIME. I did about four eggs, and started to put the last one back. And then I noticed some lint on one of them.

Only it wasn’t lint.

It was a feather.

A little plumey feather sticking out of the shell.

So one has pipped.

I’ve candled those eggs every night since day 6, and they’re growing like little chickenweeds. I know I should just leave well enough alone, but I can’t seem to stop. At first, there was one egg I thought had the bacterial ring of death, but it turns out it was a blood vessel–which are harder to see in brown eggs anyway.

As of tonight, this is the tally:

7 you can see the baby chickens bouncing around in
2 where there’s all the right dark/light stuff, and possibly a bounce, but am not totally sure
1 where the dark/light stuff is not as clear, but definitely there
2 infertile eggs, which are absolutely clear, and incidentally funky shaped

I also had a casualty; I got one extra, and it stuck to the egg turner. I tried dribbling some water down the side to dislodge it, but the shell cracked when it finally came out.

Not that our respective mothers believe it. This post is for them.

Here’s what the house looked like before we moved in:

Here’s what it’s looking like today. Excuse the clutter. It’s everywhere, but it’s a lot easier than living without a bathroom sink for six months.

Well, for once there isn’t a cloud in the sky. So there’s lots going on — Steve’s building my chicken coop, we have the aforementioned bee condos, lots of plant starts, lots of cleaning. And what do you know? Apparently, there’s this new gallery feature in WordPress. Or was it a plug in? Anyway, let’s check it out …

Marie came over for dinner last night, and the boys chilled under the table.

“Hmmm, is there any food under here?”

“Um. That’s not food.”

“I’m feeling very uncomfortable.”

“WHOA!”

“Perv.”

Bye now.

Steve wanted mason bees in the yard, hence the bee condo (with a corner of the frame of my chicken coop):

Mason bees started swarming, so he built another:

And here’s the clematis:

• @nprpolitics And here I thought it was about bad grammar … in reply to nprpolitics #
• @Jason_MacKenzie I’m sorry. in reply to Jason_MacKenzie #
• @swansacres Don’t think I didn’t wonder how to get zills in the pic! in reply to swansacres #
• I hate car alarms #
• @swansacres I KNEW you would love bellydancing! in reply to swansacres #